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Rules
These are the rules of Universe Unlimited. Consider this necessary information to have, ignorance is not an excuse. Three Strikes Everyone makes mistakes. We have all said things or done things we wish we didn't, and we had to take the punishment for those actions even if we were very sorry. We're all human, and that's why we as Staff try to give everyone plenty of chances to redeem themselves. The other side is that some people repeatedly break the rules or seriously offend the trust of staff and the player base to the point where they are no longer welcome. To this end, we live by a three strike system. The policy is very simple to explain: after three occurrences of any rule violation by the same player, we will tell her or him that they are no longer welcome to stay on the game. After the first strike, the player will be warned that future violations will not be tolerated. After a second offense they will be told they are on probation, with one last chance. After the third strike, the player will be informed that their IP will be banned from the game. If we suspect a player has returned under a different IP, that IP will be banned as well. If players have proven that they've learned from past mistakes, Staff may consider removing strikes on a case by case basis. Courtesy We don't expect you to be best friends with every other player on the game. Sometimes people just don't get along for one reason or another, and we wouldn't want you to suck up to anyone that you really don't like. However, we absolutely expect you to be decent to each other. This means no mocking, sniping, public arguing or hair-pulling. Sometimes, you might even say something in jest that someone takes personally. We're all adults and there is certainly some room for teasing, but if someone is clearly is not amused, drop the joke immediately and move along. If you're in doubt, Staff refers you to the age-old wisdom of Thumper: "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." It should also be noted that not everyone on the game has the same racial, religious, political or cultural background as you. While we encourage thoughtful discussions of differences and occasional friendly debate, we will not tolerate hateful speech about any ethnic group, country, gender, sexual orientation, religion, lifestyle choices or other designations not covered in this list. Recruitment for any religious or political associations are strictly restricted to personal conversations, and then only if both parties are comfortable with the conversation. Again, if you think what you're about to send could be considered rude, hostile or otherwise unpleasant, then you might want to rethink hitting that enter button. Anyone habitually known for being rude to others in OOC chatter will be given a strike, or automatically given a strike for especially grievous behavior once. (See News Three Strikes) In short: "Be excellent to each other...AND PARTY ON, DUDES!" Harassment The Staff of Universe Unlimited considers harassing players an unacceptable behavior. Consider it the quickest way to be asked to leave the game permanently. For the purpose of this gaming community, harassment is defined as any continuous behavior that causes another player discomfort, either due to unwanted communication, requests or actions. This can include (but is not limited to) continuing to page or @mail someone after being specifically told not to, forcing or blackmailing players into uncomfortable situations, demanding certain actions from other players in or out of character, and openly attacking people (present or otherwise) in regards to gender, race, sexual orientation, religion or cultural perspective. If you're told to cease a particular behavior, and you fail to comply with that request, you've officially harassed another player and are subject to staff action. If you feel as if you've either been the victim of, or witnessed, harassment on Universe Unlimited, please feel free to contact staff about the issue. We would prefer that you have a log of the offending behavior, but we will consider all reports of harassment seriously. Similarly, if you feel the need to ask another player to stop contacting you but aren't comfortable saying so, please don't hesitate to ask staff to communicate for you. Our ultimate goal is for everyone to have a fun time, and while playing mommy and daddy isn't our favorite thing, it is sometimes necessary for the greater good. Understand that if you are reported for harassing another character, we will have to seriously consider how to handle the situation. It will almost certainly lead to at least one "strike" and, in especially severe cases, we reserve the right to automatically ban someone from Universe Unlimited. Plagiarism Plagiarism isn't just lazy, it's technically illegal and proves nothing except you know how to copy and paste. Everything presented in your app must be your own writing, even if it's simply paraphrased canon. If we catch you copying someone else's app, a wiki entry, or anything similar, your app will be instantly rejected and you'll have to start over from scratch. If we don't catch your plagiarism until after you're approved, you'll be set as unapproved and given a second chance to resubmit your app in your own, original words. Plagiarism will earn you a "strike". IC/OOC In roleplaying games like Universe Unlimited, there are two kinds of comments and actions: those done by the players (Out of Character, or OOC) and those made by the characters they play (In Character, or IC). While it seems simple to keep these seperate, Staff feels it might be worthwhile to remind you of some basics. Don't use OOC information for IC benefit. Don't assume the opinions or actions of characters reflect the opinions or actions of the player. Try to keep IC conflicts from turning into OOC conflicts. If a player seems to be having an issue seperating OOC and IC, Staff will have to intervene and discuss what is causing the misunderstanding. If deemed necessary, this could lead to a strike against players. TinySex TinySex (IE, roleplaying sexual encounters, AKA, TS) happens. There is nothing we can do to stop it, and we don't technically condone or condemn it. It just happens. We do insist that if you're going to participate in such scenes, please keep it in private rooms on the grid or in pages. We also suggest that you close all channels and maybe not page multiple people as explicit text has a habit of ending up places it shouldn't be. While we might not attempt to ban TS, we're also not a sexual-centric MUSH; they do exist, you can find them pretty easily. If Staff has reason to believe that a player is exclusively participating in TS while playing a Feature Character, we will ask him or her kindly to maybe consider additional, more traditional RP scenes. If we don't see a change in behavior, we reserve the right to reclaim the character and ask players to apply for another. Also, characters that Staff deems are created solely for the purpose of TS will be rejected during application, as well as character descs we decide are either too provocative or suggestive. Age Our minimum player age is 18. When creating your character, we will ask you to agree that you are 18 or older. If we find out that a player has lied about their age and is younger than they stated, we reserve the right to remove them from the game. Minimum character age is 16. If you are playing a character under 18 years old, do NOT involve them in any sexually explicit scenes. Privacy Occasionally, Universe Unlimited may collect sensitive personal information, including your e-mail and IP address. Staff would like to assure you that it will never sell, circulate or leak your information. Any collection of this information is strictly for personal record keeping, and are not to violate the player's sense of privacy or space. Additionally, know that unless a staff member is present either as a player or professionally, we do not log or observe your actions without you knowing. We do not read players @mails and in matters trust our player base to not abuse the amount of privacy we allow them. However, be aware that any player or staff member that is present in the same room as you can very easily log your conversation and that these logs can be used as evidence if charges of rules violations are approached. In short: be careful with who you share personal information with. While we can assure that our staff will act responsibly and honestly with your information, we can make no such promises with any other member of our community. Idle No one expects you to play every single alt every day, but we do expect you to keep active with each character you play, especially Feature Characters. Characters that are have not logged in to for 30 days or more will be considered idle. Idle FCs will become available for other players to app, and OCs may be deleted. If Staff has reason to believe that you signed in and out just to avoid idle status, without any actual roleplay, we will still consider you as idle and act accordingly. If you know or suspect you are going to be away from the game for more than 30 days, please let us know. Vacation Sometimes you might be unable to sign onto Universe United for an extended amount of time or possibly need a break or hiatus. That isn't a problem; we don't expect everyone to be here every day, every week. If you know you're going to be gone for more than two weeks, we ask that you submit your vacation information via the +vacation code. You can read about this simple code at +help +vacation. If you don't inform us that you know you're going to be gone, we will just assume that you've gone idle and the usual idle rules apply. Terms of Service Excuse us while we're a bit harsh for a second. Universe Unlimited is a consent-based online role-playing community. The Staff provides services including game creation and moderation. Part of that moderation is that when members of the community fail to meet the clear described guidelines in these rules, then they have the right to no longer allow players to participate. Our disciplinary methods are clearly explained above, so here are just a few more bits of information. We don't want to ban anyone, but we are also not afraid to do so. If you prove that you are unable to follow by the rather reasonable guidelines we've set out, then we will inform you that you are no longer welcome to participate. We also reserve the right to keep a close eye on players we know have had a history of causing trouble on other games. We will be fair in all matters, including concerns raised in regards to Staff abusing their powers. We don't want to play the heavy, we just want to offer somewhere that we can all enjoy ourselves. But remember that participating in the game is a privilege, not a right. If Staff decides that we will be better served without the influence of certain players, then we will not hesitate to act.